Each holiday arrives fresh and clean, without the stains of materialism to warp its meaning. With each impending arrival of (insert overblown holiday here) I breathe, and recite my mantra: “I will not overdo it this year. I will teach my kids the true meaning of this holiday, and give them a few small meaningful tokens to commemorate the ritual of (insert appropriate ritual here). This is not about plastic toys or sugar.”

Today, the holiday into which I breathed this wholesome mantra was Easter. I think I was a little confused about my own intentions here, though, because as I walked through the toy aisles of TARGET (making sure everyone got even amounts of THINGS), I was determined to fill the baskets with toys instead of candy. So, um, I think I strayed a leeetle beet from the whole purpose of a minimalist holiday…yeah…